Tom Ingram was quickest in the morning session of today’s official Dunlop tyre test at Snetterton, setting a best time of 1:55.932 around the 2.99 mile circuit as twenty-nine of the British Touring Car Championship’s entrants set the Norfolk countryside alight with the sound of NGTC engines.
A margin of 0.484 seconds separated Ingram to his nearest challenger, Andrew Jordan, who recently topped the timesheets at the specially arranged BTCC time-attack at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. Daniel Lloyd was a further two tenths back, with his Eurotech Racing team-mate Jeff Smith and Rob Austin rounding out the top five.
The MG duo were the strongest of the championship contenders, with first-time race winner at Croft, Ashley Sutton, claiming 7th and team mate Josh Cook taking 9th ahead of current standings leader, Sam Tordoff.
Tordoff’s WSR team-mates, Jack Goff and Rob Collard, managed just 16th and 19th respectively in the BMW 125i M-Sports.
Halfords Yuasa Racing continued a slight dip in form, with defending champion Gordon Shedden just 17th ahead of three-time champion Matt Neal.
It was also a session near the foot of the timesheets for Silverline Subaru BMR Racing, with Colin Turkington placing highest for the Buntingford-based squad in 21st, some 2.4 seconds off the pace. Jason Plato was classified 22nd.
With all cars running different fuel loads, weight variations and tyre compounds, at this stage it would be pointless to draw comparisons and make predictions ahead of next month’s triple-header.
The test is designed to put mileage on potential tyre compounds for the 2017 campaign, and to provide Dunlop, the official tyre supplier to the championship, with some valuable information on how the tyre behaves. A further session is scheduled this afternoon, as well as another two tomorrow.
More importantly for the teams and drivers, it provides them with an opportunity to familiarise themselves with the Snetterton circuit, which the championship heads to next over the last weekend of July following the summer break. With a number of cars, including the Subaru Levorg, yet to run at the venue, the mileage could prove valuable indeed.
The second session gets underway imminently, and times can be followed via TSL.
Session results
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 80 | Tom INGRAM |  |
Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 31 | 1:55.932 | 0.000 | |
| 2 | 77 | Andrew JORDAN | |
Motorbase Performance | Ford Focus | 40 | 1:56.416 | 0.484 | |
| 3 | 23 | Daniel LLOYD | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 39 | 1:56.631 | 0.699 | |
| 4 | 55 | Jeff SMITH | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 40 | 1:56.981 | 1.049 | |
| 5 | 11 | Rob AUSTIN | |
Handy Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 30 | 1:57.093 | 1.161 | |
| 6 | 48 | Ollie JACKSON | |
AmD Tuning | Audi S3 | 39 | 1:57.168 | 1.236 | |
| 7 | 116 | M | Ashley SUTTON | |
MG Racing RCIB Insurance | MG6GT | 39 | 1:57.249 | 1.317 |
| 8 | 16 | Aiden MOFFAT | |
Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 28 | 1:57.273 | 1.341 | |
| 9 | 66 | M | Josh COOK | |
MG Racing RCIB Insurance | MG6GT | 36 | 1:57.323 | 1.391 |
| 10 | 600 | C | Sam TORDOFF | |
Team JCT600 with GardX | BMW 125i M Sport | 36 | 1:57.337 | 1.405 |
| 11 | 53 | Hunter ABBOTT | |
Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 27 | 1:57.428 | 1.496 | |
| 12 | 7 | Mat JACKSON | |
Motorbase Performance | Ford Focus | 46 | 1:57.480 | 1.548 | |
| 13 | 30 | Martin DEPPER | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 38 | 1:57.572 | 1.640 | |
| 14 | 33 | Adam MORGAN | |
WIX Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 22 | 1:57.675 | 1.743 | |
| 15 | 40 | Árón SMITH |  |
BKR | Volkswagen CC | 32 | 1:57.742 | 1.810 | |
| 16 | 31 | C | Jack GOFF | |
Team IHG Rewards Club | BMW 125i M Sport | 11 | 1:57.892 | 1.960 |
| 17 | 52 | M | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 32 | 1:58.011 | 2.079 |
| 18 | 25 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 33 | 1:58.032 | 2.100 |
| 19 | 100 | C | Rob COLLARD | |
Team JCT600 with GardX | BMW 125i M Sport | 18 | 1:58.188 | 2.256 |
| 20 | 20 | M | James COLE | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 38 | 1:58.228 | 2.296 |
| 21 | 4 | M | Colin TURKINGTON | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 50 | 1:58.333 | 2.401 |
| 22 | 99 | M | Jason PLATO | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 23 | 1:58.349 | 2.417 |
| 23 | 14 | Alex MARTIN | |
Dextra Racing with Team Parker | Ford Focus | 25 | 1:58.486 | 2.554 | |
| 24 | 12 | Mike EPPS | |
RCIB Insurance Racing | Toyota Avensis | 16 | 1:58.877 | 2.945 | |
| 25 | 303 | Matt SIMPSON | |
Speedworks Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 1:59.538 | 3.606 | |
| 26 | 95 | Stewart LINES | |
Maximum Motorsport | Ford Focus | 45 | 2:00.129 | 4.197 | |
| 27 | 84 | Kelvin FLETCHER | |
Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 44 | 2:00.377 | 4.445 | |
| 28 | 38 | Mark HOWARD | |
BKR | Volkswagen CC | 28 | 2:00.796 | 4.864 | |
| 29 | 39 | M | Warren SCOTT | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 6 | 2:09.731 | 13.799 |